WEBVTT - Neurosecurity: Dawn of the Brain Hackers 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:16.800 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.680 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.040 I got a question for you, Kenny. Have you ever 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.720 wondered if it's possible to create a piece of digital information, 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.520 like a computer file, a bit of computer code, a 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.720 computer virus that could literally kill or injure somebody. Oh, 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.000 of course I have. I mean having watched and enjoyed 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.080 such films as The Ring, as Video Drone, like, just 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.200 the idea of there being some sort of in these 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.880 cases media, But we can easily extrapolate that to to 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.479 digital media or just digital information. You can't help but think, 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.519 is there is there something like that that could exist 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.840 that would have a devastating or even lethal effect on 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.000 anyone who interacted with it? Yeah, video file, audio file, 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.240 computer program, something that comes out of the digital interface 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:09.920 and actually harms you. Well, it's not hard to see 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.800 how you could harm somebody indirectly with something like that. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.479 One example would be a computer virus that takes down 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:20.440 a lot of systems or causes widespread economic damage. That's 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.399 been happening since the eighties as well discussed. Yeah, certainly so. 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:27.440 Widespread economic damage means people lose their jobs, and statistically 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.559 we know that that will indirectly lead to some number 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.920 of deaths above the mean mortality rate. But I mean 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.640 something more direct obviously, you know, I'm talking about the 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.600 cyborg ninja kind of stuff, But take away the cyborg ninja, 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.800 I'm not talking about robot assassins or at least personal 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.039 data like that's been another big one to write. I've 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.720 seen accounts where people have said this individual is potentially 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:54.880 suicidal over the leakage of the images, video or personal information. Sure, 0:01:55.040 --> 0:02:00.520 that's the devastating effect of digital gossip. But couldn't malicious 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.840 hacker injured or assassinate somebody just with a digital file 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.280 directly a piece of computer code video? Yeah, I mean, 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.680 this is of course an increasingly important consideration, you know, 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.440 because we just look at all the things around us 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.760 that are becoming connected to the Internet that you know, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.960 years ago, I would have thought, why would I need my, 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.600 uh let's say, my thermostat to be connected to the internet. 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.440 It seems crazy, and yet here I am in the future. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.640 Especially during the cold months, I enjoyed waking up grabbing 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.240 my phone and adjusting the thermostat, warming up the house. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:36.760 And at the same time, I'm thinking, is this a 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:41.880 little crazy that this electric you know, gas powered fire 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.040 in my home is now controlled by a device that 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.000 is connected to the internet and all the horrors of 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.040 the Internet. I end up just having to like stick, 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.000 you know, push that out of my brain and just 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.040 focus on the fact, Oh I can before I get 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:57.359 out of bed, I can, I can make it a 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.840 little warmer. Now. Fortunately, there are limits to what you're 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.360 amostatic can do. Right, You're not worried about some crazy 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.800 kid on four Chan deciding that he wants to cook 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.639 you alive and turning your house thermostat up to five 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.040 hundred degrees. But the more we think about a smart house, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.400 like there was some horrible sci fi movie that came 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.880 out years and years ago, and it had a smart 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.120 house that where the robot you know, goes completely how 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.160 on everybody, and it had like a terminator arm that 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.880 hangs from the ceiling and like travels around the house. Uh. I, 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.840 As I keep thinking back to that, the more interconnected 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.720 our homes become, and now that you know, the whole 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:36.080 idea of like your house becoming self aware and killing 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.200 you is one thing. But yeah, just the idea that 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.760 all these things are connected, at least in a small way, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.480 to everyone else in the world, it can be a 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.680 little much. This was explored to great effect in the 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:54.000 wonderful Stephen King movie Maximum Overdrive. I'm just kidding, not 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.440 not such a great movie, but the premises all our 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.880 machines turn against us, right, our consumer technology, from truck 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.400 to household appliances start trying to kill us. I think 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.400 in the movie it's aliens, right, I can't remember in 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.720 the movie. In the book, I mean the short story rather, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.280 it was delightfully vague. Um. And then of course Maximum 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.360 Overdrive the film as its own experience. But I guarantee 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.040 you there's got to be a script out there where 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.279 someone has taken Maximum Overdrive, or at least trucks the 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.039 original story and upgraded it to the you know, the 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.920 so called Internet of things. Yeah, and the most obvious 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.000 analogy from the movie is going to be autonomous vehicles. 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:36.080 Autonomous vehicles if have if they have the wrong security exploits, 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.720 if people can manipulate them in the wrong ways, it's 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.160 not hard at all to see how they can be deadly. 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.800 But I want to get even more insidious about devices 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.440 that we personally hold in our hands and used to 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:54.120 mediate our relationship with regular information like text and video. 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.640 And you know ideas. I've got an archived Wired magazine 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:04.240 article enti idled hackers assault epilepsy patients via computer and 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.400 this is from March two thousand eight. And what happened 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.760 in this uh incident is that somebody attacked an epilepsy 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.880 support message board hosted by a group called the Epilepsy Foundation. 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.400 And just to read a quote about what happened quote, 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:24.280 the incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.320 harm on the victims, began Saturday, March twenty two, when 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:32.000 attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.960 with flashing, animated gifts. The attackers turned to a more 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:40.080 effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.919 redirected users browsers to a page with a more complex 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:48.239 image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.320 sensitive epileptics. And then later in the article they note 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.720 and this is worth noting, epilepsy effects about fifty million 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.679 people worldwide, but only about three percent of those people 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.039 are photosensitive, meaning you've often heard, you know, the old 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.320 Pokemon story that flashing lights or flashing images can cause 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.160 seizures and people with epilepsy. That is true for some 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.200 people with epilepsy, but not all. So the risk here 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.320 is not necessarily like a wide attack where you just 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.800 end up hitting that small percentage of people who are affected. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.360 But what have you targeted it after a specific individual? 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.719 And this is apparently happened. Now we have this story 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.599 from twenty sixteen where there's an American journalist named Kurt 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:33.880 Aikenwald who was known publicly to have photosensitive epilepsy. And 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.479 during the election, so he's a political journalist and of 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:41.240 course being a political journalist you make enemies, and somebody 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.040 who did not like his political coverage sent him a 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:48.440 series of tweets with strobing light images. Uh and allegedly 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.279 this caused a seizure. And so he is now a 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.160 witnessed in a criminal prosecution against these digital attackers who 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.520 attacked his physical body. And we're able to cause a 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:05.240 physical injury with just information through an interface. It's interesting 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.440 that it took place on Twitter too, because I mean, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.280 Twitter is known to be this place where like a 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.480 lot of the Internet where where people feel like they 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.680 can be just as nasty and awful as they possibly 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.960 can without any repercussions. And and here we see a 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.840 situation where it ends up transcending nearly the hurting of 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:31.640 feelings or or psychological damage, but actual physical attack. Yeah. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:36.000 But while almost anybody can be psychologically harmed by information 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:41.160 received through an interface, it's really difficult in general to 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.320 physically harm somebody with information received through a standard you know, 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.000 digital media interface. It's really rare. Like, there is this 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.760 one specific exploit in the brains of three percent of 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.360 people or so who have epilepsy. That means that certain 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.920 types of light images projected on a screen can cause 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:04.520 physical injury or it can trigger a seizure. Not everybody's epileptic, not, 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.040 not all people with epilepsy have this condition, so it's 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.720 it's pretty rare. But this is one neurological vulnerability to 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:15.240 information based weapons built right into some of our brains. 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.520 Most of the time, for most people, the brain is 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.480 very secure, right, It's it's hard to cause direct injury 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.960 to somebody's body, or steal their innermost secrets, or do 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.400 anything like that with information interfaces alone. But today, we 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.040 want to talk about how that state of affairs is 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.920 very likely changing, and it may be changing very soon, 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.880 because we want to talk about the coming age of 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.000 neuro security. And the crazy thing here is that we're 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.280 not talking about something that may come to pass. We're 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.040 talking about, as you'll see, as we discussed this further, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.679 this is something that is definitely going to happen, that 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.920 needs to happen, an inevitable next step. Yeah, and unless 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:59.320 basically life or technological progress on Earth stops right now. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.240 This is not a singularity issue. This is not This 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.240 is a very near future concern, yes, and and very 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.080 very plausible based on things that we already have today. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.440 So there are several different things that you could call 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.719 neuro security. One thing would be using neuroscience principles in 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.200 the general field of security, right protecting your borders with 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.840 f m r I brain scanners during border stop interrogations 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.280 or something right picking up say, for instance, if you 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.480 could use this technology to pick up on like extreme 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.360 levels of nervousness that might need to be inspected with 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.040 additional questions, or if it was even possible to tell 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.920 that there was some sort of malicious intent or stocking 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:40.800 up your t s A. The ranks of your t 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.320 s A agents with scanners. I mean, like from the 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:49.240 movie Scanners Psychic Psychic t s A. Okay, yes, it's 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.400 basically scanner cops, the sequel to My God. You're right, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.800 scanner cops. Can you imagine the faces they make while 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.480 you're standing in line? But that make flying better because 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.440 it makes it funnier or worse because it'd be even creepier. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:08.040 Probably creepy, I'm guessing creepy. Sorry, Well, that's an interesting subject, 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.240 but a subject for a different day. Today, we're talking 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:17.160 about the security of our biological information systems, essentially applying 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:23.200 computer cybersecurity principles to your brain and your nervous system. Now, 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.600 you might be asking, that sounds ridiculous. Why would you 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.640 ever talk about that? I mean, that's that's just such 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.240 a weird sci fi scenario. Nothing like that's ever gonna happen, 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.320 right right, I mean to bring up scanners again. It 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.480 just makes me think of the first Scanners movie that 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.720 at the time I thought ridiculous moment where the scanners 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.960 are interfacing with the computer with their brain, and that 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.800 threw me completely out of the movie because I'm because 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:51.600 I'm like, all right, you you. I'm on board with 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.800 brain to brain the psychic connections, but you're throwing me 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.360 off when I'm trying to imagine a brain to machine 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.079 connection that's just purely based on psychic power. It does 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.680 seem to violate the magic of the film, right, It 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.120 gets it gets the mythology out of whack because there's 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:08.960 a scene in the movie Scanners where one of the 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.960 scanners he gets on a telephone and he calls into 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.200 a computer system and he reads the mind of the 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.080 computer system. Yeah, and he wasn't even making facts machine 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.000 noises with his mouth. That that I would have been 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.920 on board with, but yeah, not the way Cronenberg decided 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.200 to to display it. Michael Ironside could have sold those 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.440 facts machine noises with his mouth, but not the guy 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.280 they had play in the Here. So we're going to 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.640 talk about a particular study that I'll get to a 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.360 couple different times in this episode. But actually it might 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.240 be wrong to call it a study because it's really 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.680 more an attempt at definitions, right, trying to lay out 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.720 what the concept of neuro security would be and what 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:50.920 are some things we need to watch out for. And 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:52.959 so this was published in two thousand nine in the 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:58.120 journal Neurosurgical Focus. It's called neuro Security, Security and Privacy 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:03.959 for Neural Devices from Tamara Dinning, Yoki Matsuka, and tada 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.720 Yoshi Kono. So the authors of this paper note that 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:15.079 there are three primary goals in computer security. You've got confidentiality, integrity, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.240 and availability. So confidentiality means what you think it does. 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.400 It means an attacker of your computer system should not 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.839 be able to exploit the device to learn or expose 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.360 private information. Standard example would be hacker steals your bank 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:35.240 account info, or your private emails or your private photos. Yeah, 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.520 these are essentially externalizations of my private thoughts, and I 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.080 don't want anyone to have access to either exactly now. 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.640 The next one was integrity. Integrity means that an attacker 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.640 should not be able to quote change device settings or 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:54.120 initiate unauthorized operations. In other words, the attackers should not 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.640 be able to use this device whatever it is, computer, 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.439 cell phone, anything like that. Should not be able to 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.680 use it for their own purposes or change what the 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.559 device does for the primary user. An example here might 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.160 be that a hacker could take over your computer to 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.160 turn it into a bot. That's part of a bot 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.080 net to have a d D O S attack against 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.800 some website. Maybe they had a bad meal at Olive Garden. 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.880 They want to take down the Olive Garden homepage, so 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.800 they hijack your computer and make your computer one of 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:30.320 many computers that bombard Olive Garden with with requests to 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.360 load the page. Okay, and obviously I would not want 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.360 that to happen in my brain, either to change the 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.880 settings on my brain and ultimately change my behavior, change 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.360 my motivations, like even if it's done in a very 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.720 slap dash awkward way, like you know, hands out of 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:51.200 my brains exactly. So the last one is availability. Availability 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.760 means that the attackers should not be able to destroy 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.600 or disable the device or do anything that would render 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.520 it unavailable to the user. Classic example, hackered deletes all 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.400 your files or alters the computer's boot procedures so that 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.200 it won't load your operating system on startup and it 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:11.040 just becomes useless. Likewise, I don't want anyone to strategically 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.920 remove memories from my brain, to wipe my memories from 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:19.760 my brain, or to even temporarily deactivate certain cognitive centers 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.000 or networks in my brain. Yeah. Now, in these examples 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:27.520 you're talking about, you're talking about sort of whole brain functionality, 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:32.720 but there could be dire consequences for much lower stakes questions. 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.200 Somebody might not necessarily be able to disable your entire brain. 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:38.440 But in a minute, we're going to talk about some 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.640 particular types of neuro technology. And in many of these cases, 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:47.280 for example, just disabling your neuro technology could have devastating 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.520 consequences for you. They wouldn't have to be able to 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.080 turn off your brain. They might just be able to 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.000 turn off your neural implant at a time and place 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.440 that would make you very vulnerable or could hurt you. 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.400 I experienced something like this the the weekend. I had 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.360 to drive to a major phone service providers m brick 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.760 and mortar store that I'd never been to before, and 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.880 I had to do it without a functional phone. So 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:13.840 I had managed I ended up printing out the wrong 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.440 directions map quest or you know whatever map program I 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.560 I used. It's amazing how dependently could come. Yeah, so 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:22.480 in a way, it was it was like a part 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.120 of my brain was not functioning because the phone was 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:30.000 not functioning. You have offloaded part of your traditional capability 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.480 something maybe ten or fifteen years ago, you would have 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:36.640 probably had better internal mechanisms for locating a store you 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.280 needed to get to. Uh, And now you've said, well, 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:41.240 I don't have to worry about that anymore. That's in 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.480 this peripheral that I used to supplement my brain. But 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.120 if the peripheral breaks, you're you're messed up. Now. Yeah, 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:51.640 and that is technology that exists, you know, quite literally, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.440 you know, arms distance away from the brain. But the 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.360 thing is we're seeing the technology creep increasingly closer to 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.640 the brain. And then what happens when that stuff goes 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.840 offline or becomes compromised. So to quote the authors of 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.520 the study I mentioned, they say, quote, we define neuro 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:13.120 security as the protection of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:17.640 neural devices from malicious parties, with the goal of preserving 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.880 the safety of a person's neural mechanisms, neural computation, and 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.800 free will. Now we're going to look directly at some 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.280 of the neural technologies that might be vulnerable to security 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.120 concerns like this. But before we do that, I think 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:37.480 we should look more broadly at the idea of information security, 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.920 because if you're not all that familiar with the history 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.280 of the Internet. It might be kind of puzzling to you, like, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.840 why is the Internet so horrible in terms of security? 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.280 We we've got this global thing, what would you even 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.400 call it? Would you call it a technology? We've got 0:16:54.440 --> 0:17:00.080 this global information civilization that is just terrible. It is 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.920 just terrible in terms of security. There there is not 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:07.800 an overarching strategy to keep everything safe. I keep thinking 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.320 of it like the cat's cradle that you create with 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.600 the with the length of string and your fingers, and you, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:14.600 you know, you interweave your fingers and you create a 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.600 pattern so that the Internet in this case, it's not 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.080 the string, it's not the fingers. It couldn't exist this 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.120 without the string and the fingers. It's ultimately that shape. 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.840 You know. That's kind of a loose way I think 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:27.879 about it. Well, maybe we should take a quick break 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.280 and when we get back, we can look at how 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:39.680 the Internet ended up becoming so vulnerable to security concerns. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.080 All right, we're back, So, yes, how did the Internet 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.280 end up becoming so vulnerable? Now? This is on one 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.439 thing to take me on a trip on fear and 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.600 paranoia memory lane, And I'll try and keep this this 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:54.719 fun too. I guess if if you're a fan of 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:56.920 like Halt and catch fire, it's kind of fun to 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.520 think of it in those terms. But yeah, I mean, 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.639 on one hand, it's an easy question to ask because 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.280 we live in a day where we have ransomware attacks, 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:09.680 identity theft, docsining, invasion of privacy. But on the other hand, 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.439 so many of us were born into this system of 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.679 the internet, or you know, or we if you're like me, 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.840 you entered into it during college, and it's easy to 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.720 just assume that the systems that run the world and 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.320 the organizations that were in the world haven't figured out 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.720 to some extent. You know, you expect the bank to 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:33.480 be secure, You expect some security to to be in place. 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.359 There are some rather significant security options to be in place, 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.400 so you would assume that the the virtual bank would 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.720 be much the same. Right if you were to just 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.320 find out that there are human sized holes in the 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.720 bank vault that keeps your money, that would be rather surprising. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.720 It's not surprising at all to find out that there 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:55.879 are hacker sized holes in the digital systems that protect 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.719 your private information. I mean, how many times now if 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:03.160 we had the story about some online retailer or maybe 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.600 even physical retailer that you did business with and they 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.360 have your credit card number. They got hacked, and now 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.000 your information belongs to somebody out there and you have 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.280 to get a new credit card or something like that. Yeah, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.080 and I think we can all relate to that kind 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.520 of anxiety. Yeah. Now, I mentioned earlier that that so 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:22.880 many of us were a number of our listeners here 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.720 were born into the Internet age. So I'm going to 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:27.760 try and put this in turn, like the origins of 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:29.679 the Internet, in terms of something that maybe more of 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.639 us could understand, but then not maybe not the younger people, 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:34.959 but for a number of you out there. I bet 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.480 you can remember the day that your mom joined Facebook. 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.280 So you remember the realization that oh crap, this this 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.560 internet thing, this this really is for everyone. It's that 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.520 horrible moment where something that you and your friends do 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.120 online that you think of as not real life comes 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:57.680 crashing into real life and you realize like, ohhh, this 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.400 is connected to the same universe where I live. Yeah, yeah, 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.960 I remember. There was like a sharp contrast, certainly between 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.159 the MySpace aide. Remember what it felt like to be 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.719 on my Space was totally different than the early stages 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.959 of Facebook, which was, which was completely different from what 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.440 Facebook would become in terms of you know, just earlier 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.879 models just felt like, oh, I'm just surrounded by like 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.920 minded people who share my my same sort of attitude 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.399 on life and and values about what's important. And granted, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.680 there's there was already a certain amount of bubble construction there, 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.000 but but yeah, we we just we we had expectations 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.600 about what this this technology was and who this technology 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.119 was for, And the same situation really applies to the 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.000 Internet as a whole. It's architects did not build it 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.120 from the ground up as a global system for the masses, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.680 a cat's cradle weaved around the fingers of so many computers. No, 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.000 they designed it as an online community for a few 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.760 dozen researchers. It was a research project. It was like, Hey, 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.679 we've got these computers at different universities and institutions. What 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.960 if we could link them together so they could trade information? 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:11.000 Would that be weird? I don't think that. Maybe some 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:14.520 people did, but it doesn't seem like generally they predicted 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.160 that this would become a hub of commerce and recreation 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.439 for everybody on the planet. Yeah, I mean, it's you 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:24.840 can you can't help, but compare it to say empires, right, 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:27.720 can you imagine you have uh, you know Genghis Khan 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.840 and he's sitting around and uh and they're saying, hey, Genghis, 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:32.400 what's up? And he said, oh, not much. I got 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.800 this idea though, I'm going to call it the Mongol Empire. Huh. 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:37.359 And this is how it's gonna work. This is how 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:40.240 we're gonna incorporate trade and the and this is how 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:44.040 we're gonna value different religions. And there was whoa, you 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:45.960 haven't even none of this stuff is even conquered yet. 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.719 What are you talking about, like the people who found 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:55.200 these these major movements and organizations? Like how often is 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.280 the complete structure baked into the original design? Almost never? 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.159 Each step is improvised. So you've got to make decisions 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.320 about design. You make design decisions on the fly as 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.960 issues come up. And the Internet was sort of the 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.480 same way. Yeah, you gotta leave it to Kubla to 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:16.240 figure out the rest. So um, there's a wonderful Washington 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.440 Post article that that that goes into this in depth. 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:23.000 It's titled a Flaw in the Design and uh And 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.560 I'll include a link to this on the landing page 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.080 for this episode it's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.560 In the article, the author speaks with such Internet forefathers 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:35.000 as M. I. T scientists David D. Clark, David H. Crocker, 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.560 and Vinton G. Surf. They point out that they thought 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:44.360 they could simply exclude untrustworthy people. Is that great, We'll 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.160 just we'll just keep the security risks off of the Internet. Yeah. 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:50.560 So when they thought about security, and they did think 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:52.720 a little bit about security, they thought about it mainly 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:56.320 in terms of protecting the system from outside intruders or 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.920 military threats. So there's a quonderful quote in this article 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.720 from Surf, and he says, quote, we didn't focus on 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.399 how you could wreck this system intentionally. You could argue 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:09.240